SOLUTION: Wilson is 6 ft tall. When Wilson stands 6 feet from a lamppost the shadow he casts is 4 feet long. How tall is the lamppost? I've tried to get this into an equation, using the

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Question 881442: Wilson is 6 ft tall. When Wilson stands 6 feet from a lamppost the shadow he casts is 4 feet long. How tall is the lamppost?
I've tried to get this into an equation, using the proportion method, but cannot get the correct answer - I'm so confused.
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Wilson is 6 ft tall.
When Wilson stands 6 feet from a lamppost the shadow he casts is 4 feet long.
How tall is the lamppost?
:
I'm confused too. It does not say anything about the lamp post shadow
:
The man's relationship to his shadow is: 6:4
The relationship of the lamp post to it's shadow will be the same, however,
we don't know it's shadow, the fact the man is 6ft from the lamp post means nothing.
:
One thought, if the man is standing on the end of the lamp post shadow, the it's shadow is 6ft, then we have
=
4L = 6*6
4L = 36
L = 36/4
L = 9 ft is the height of the lamp post
:
I jut read you comment and it occurred to me that perhaps the lamp shadow and the man's shadow coincided, so the lamp shadow was actually 6 + 4 = 10 ft
then
L/10 = 6/4
4L = 60
L = 60/4 = 15'!!